If you’ve tried to play Kingdom Hearts III in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed a pretty sizeable update to the game in the form of 1.09. It’s filled with some of the biggest updates the game has seen since its release in 2019. And it also paves the way for the…
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath first released back in 2005 on the original Xbox. Released in what was then the late-January dead zone, Stranger’s Wrath was critically adored but sank commercially when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords launched around a fortnight later. I was one of the few that bought Stranger’s…
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is yet another Wii U game making its way to the Nintendo Switch. When the original Tokyo Mirage Sessions made its debut on the Wii U, it didn’t exactly make much of a splash. Like so many titles to launch on the Wii U, it languished in relative obscurity. Now,…
Nintendo has leaned heavily on nostalgia to make the Switch one of their most successful systems to date. There’s nothing wrong with that, and for the most part it has worked remarkably well. Ports and remakes have been leading the pack, tiding us over while new IP is few and far between. Yes, it can…
Eberron is one of Dungeons & Dragons greatest settings. A world still sifting through the wreckage of a recent global war, a place where sorcery and ambition have created technological marvels. The second major campaign setting for D&D 5th Edition is a palate cleanser, a very different flavour to the game’s traditional home in the…
Understandably, some fans were upset when it was announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield would severely limit which Pokémon could be caught across all eight generations. It was dubbed “dexit” (perhaps to keep with the UK theme), decried online (ad nauseam), and even led to a few grown adults crossing their arms, stomping their precious…
The WD Black P10 Game Drive is a pretty tight little piece of kit. It understands that game file sizes are larger than ever and growing as a new hardware generation looms. You can see this in real terms — models start at 2TB before hitting a monstrous 4TB and 5TB. The drive is USB…
The Need for Speed franchise is much as a staple of the racing genre as any other. From the high octane thrills of Hot Pursuit, to the halcyon days of Underground, and the epic, white-knuckle police chases of the highly regarded Most Wanted. A few rocky and undercooked entries have plagued the series in recent…
The Layton series played a big part in my schooling years. Little ol’ me and my Nintendo DS, absolutely stoked to have this series in hand. If there was any gaming franchise that kept my mind alight, these were it, thanks to all its puzzles. There are now seven games in the Layton series. This…
I don’t really know how to review a game like Death Stranding. Try as I might to collect my thoughts for review, it seems designed to defy critical appraisal at every turn. This may make it a work of high and complex art, a kind of long-form interactive Rorschach test, but I don’t know that…
Like the galaxy, the library of Star Wars video games is incredibly vast. As a huge Star Wars fan, every new experience becomes an automatic purchase, the hope that each new title will be better than the last. A true digital representation of the Star Wars universe in the palm of my hands. While some…
For some time now, there’s been a growing sense that Bethesda has lost the thread of what made The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series’ so great. If you’ve been feeling the same way, it’s likely that The Outer Worlds will be game you’ve been hoping they would make. Bethesda didn’t make it, but it sure feels…
How on earth has been four years since the last Olympic Games? Mario and Sonic can’t believe it either apparently, reigniting their generations-long blood fued in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Previous titles in this series have been enjoyable, if forgettable, party games, a series of mini-games based on numerous Olympic…
12 years after its original release, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is still considered by many to be the best entry in the series. Developer Infinity Ward has grappled with its legacy ever since, trying to recapture the aspects of the game that made it a hit. In 2019, the roundabout of Call of Duty developers has…
Ghostbusters: The Video Game launched in 2009 to great commercial and critical success, a rarity for a licensed game. It boasted an in-canon story following the events of Ghostbusters 2 and the entire original cast — Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and the late, great Harold Ramis — reprised their iconic roles. In today’s…
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is exactly the kind of game to get your kids if they love Halloween. Uncomplicated in design and low on overall difficulty, it smoothes over any potential wrinkles with trademark Nintendo charm. It’s spooky in the ways that kids love and is always careful to undercut its low-grade scares with good humour….
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the greatest role-playing games ever made. I knew that the first time I played it at a preview in January 2015 and it remains true now over four years after its release. CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece/labour of love operates at a scale that would make other genre…
Rarely do you find a puzzle role-playing game where the abilities you use to succeed are as eccentric as its cast of characters. Rarer still is the opportunity to share that experience with another player. This is why the Trine series is so important to me. With Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, developer Frozenbyte has…
With this current generation of consoles coming to a close, you would be hard-pressed to find a platform with as many consistent, quality exclusive titles. But the Playstation 4 proves unready to buck this trend, with developer Pixelopus releasing one of the most visually gorgeous and prolific experiences of its kind. Concrete Genie does a bunch…
Those already familiar with Dragon Quest XI S would be nodding, big grin on their face, when I write that this is not only one of the best JRPGs to arrive in years, but the single best entry in a legendary series that has spanned decades. That in itself is quite the feat, seeing as…
While I don’t necessarily understand Codemasters decision to reboot GRID, their pedigree as a developer of skifully designed, fun as hell racing games means I’m willing to take their word for it. From the stellar Formula 1 series to the gritty tracks of Dirt Rally, I had to bite down on the creeping notion that…
Right out the gate, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint frustrated me. For every step the franchise took forward it in this iteration, it seemed to be taking two steps back. There are things to love in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, such as the vast open world, cinematic story and tight gunplay, but thanks to a largely similar…
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is the first major expansion for the popular MMO shooter since developer Bungie’s split from Activision Blizzard in January. Though Bungie has maintained a parade of events and updates for the game throughout 2019, they set themselves a rather high bar to jump over with the new expansion. Here was what Bungie’s…
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair gets a lot of things right, and chief among them: it proves that the character platformer genre, the long-dead moneymaker of the 16-bit era, can still engage and excite in 2019. The original Yooka-Laylee was considered by most to be a good if unremarkable 3D platformer. Created by many of the…
There’s no better herald of the end-of-year video game rush than the arrival of a new FIFA game, and arrive it does with FIFA 20. There is a specific audience for these games — bring up FIFA around a group of gamers and third of them will immediately lose interest, another third remain neutral, and the remaining third…
It’s been a little over two years since Daemon X Machina was announced at Nintendo’s 2017 E3 Direct and, after suffering through a troubled beta earlier in the year, has finally launched on the Switch. The trailers paint a picture of an amazing mech brawler with a lot of potential. Coming off of Astral Chain,…
In today’s gaming landscape, you might be forgiven for never having heard of Dark Souls, but you would definitely be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t played a game either directly inspired or affected by it. Enter The Surge 2, a tactical hack- and-slash experience that follows hot off the heels of its predecessor,…
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a remake of the 1993 Game Boy title of the same name. In many ways, Link’s Awakening is an ideal game to remake — because it appeared on a system that many players today would never have owned, and has never been considered a must-play entry in the series, it will…
The NBA 2K series has become for many, including myself, the definitive basketball gaming experience. While each iteration tries to evolve in interesting ways, NBA 2K20 remains an evolutionary experience rather than a revolutionary one. In many ways, NBA 2K20 is superior to any of its predecessors, presenting stellar basketball gameplay paired with authentic presentation…
My relationship with Borderlands might be different from that of other people, I don’t know. What I do know is that, contrary to a lot of other games I tend to like, I don’t come to Borderlands for the story or the characters or the world. I show up because Gearbox Software makes an idiot…
